Month: June 2012

Now what makes an idiot try and out swim a rowing boat. Talking about the Oxford and Cambridge boat race. The best way to deal with these “d………..ds” who crave publicity and attention is to ignore them. He should have been left in the pond to make his own way back to dry land, and then be quietly knicked and lead away. It’s quite ironic that the media “complained” about how the attention was taken away from the race and landed on this aussie guy. WHO took the attention away? The ………………. media! Then of course the man involved says the race is elitist. Try telling that to crew who have been getting up at 5 in the winter’s morning and practising in their own time!

Now we have that terrorist Al Muqtda The Hook or whatever he wants to call himself languishing and making a mockery of British Justice and spending our hard earned dosh so that he can stay longer in the country he so despises. Ignore the European courts, and hand out our own Justice; send him to Jordan or wherever he has murdered before, and rot in a cell there. Bring back the British bill of human rights and stuff the European justice system which is full of unvoted judges whose pay packet would even make Wayne Rooney blink.

Greece – drachma please; who can trust them anyway. I bet there are many Europeans now wishing they had the mark, the franc, and so on. Even the guys who set it up say it wasn’t thought out properly. Start again.

Syria – The man “Basher” or something has obviously lost it; or maybe the crazed army have just taken control and ignore him, as surely nobody in their right minds would allow the disgusting images we see on a daily basis. What to do though? Russia can stop it overnight!

The UN want to name Mugabe as “Tourism’s lead Ambassador”! That sums up the UN!

Here in South Africa they have just sacked another top Cop for……….? 2nd one in a year; a pretty good record! Malema is out as we can breathe normally again as he used to gob off so much you could feel the oxygen being taken away from you by this “oxygen thief”.

Not being a footie fan, the last week of the premier league was full of fun, with the 2 Manchesters battling it out, and right down to the last minute it was undecided. Fergie – must have had a few whiskies that night to get over it. Now we have the Euro Championships; Spain V Germany Final.

Cricket going well for the team thrashing the Windies. Just the Rugby; can’t win them all.

"The Boys doing what they do Best!""Guide working, Tracker watching - How's that?? Josia and Patric!"

ENOUGH!

Congratulations to Markus and Marta, Dan and Lisa, Simon and Carla for tying the knot here at Garonga! And to those on Honeymoon; we hope to see you back on an anniversary! This time of the year we got a number of inspections from the Trade from Italy, SA, UK, and Germany. Andy from Africa In Focus brought in a group from Cape Town and great fun was had by all – if I can remember.

It has been a busy couple of months exceeding previous records which is fantastic. Now that we are well into winter, the fires in the evenings, and now the hot toddies, the electric blankets all make it very comfortable and fun. It has to be said that we are now purchasing a crane to hook to the guest’s ankles in the early morning to get them out of bed as it is pretty nippy first thing, and so “no mercy”. The sleep outs are a great success as this is the best time to do them, and it is much warmer than in the camp area – trust me…………I’m a catholic! The skies are incredible at night, a delicious hot meal, comfy bed with duvet and blankets, a toilet on the same deck; what more do you need?

Safari guides have been incredible and gives me much more confidence in saying that we are a “stand alone safari camp”. The sightings have been amazing; one morning they saw cheetah, lions and leopard in the same game drive. Another couple saw a leopard drinking from the Little Garonga fountain during their tea time. Unfortunately due to the high number of lions including the 18 lion coalition, we have had to reduce lion numbers by 7 as the wildebeest and other Snack game were just being dropped regularly. This makes it more even stevens on the reserve wildlife. The ellie bulls have been performing their normal tricks, ripping up water pipes dropping trees in the most inconvenient of places when there is SO MUCH space out there. The eland have been back which are always great to see. So well done guys, and now that most of them are qualified trails guides (no mean feat by the way) they can teach and show so much more.

On the feeding frenzy front the ladies have been cooking admirably, and those chocolate cheesecakes look simply delicious. Still cooking a lot of game meats and also adding more traditional winter fare such as casseroles, Pastry type steak and kidney, a fish and chips night which went down very well, but the special wines………………? Not doing well there as apparently the house wine is too good; so am off to Gravelotte to buy a cheapie!

"Typical Mum"

On the staff front congratulations to Zandile for the birth of her daughter. Angelique has left us to take up massaging on the cruises, so Tahnee has stepped in as relief therapist until we have a permanent one in August. I went to the Arabian Travel Market Show in Dubai (waste of time) and then on down to the annual show in Durban for the Indaba. Indaba has become over-expensive and completely lost its way; I wouldn’t be surprised if a competitor show started up and Indaba just dropped out.

June and July we have a fair bit of space left for those who want a quickie trip over; great time to come; warm to hot days and chilly nights but no bugs, rain or mozzies. We are about to put a package together with the “Steenberg Hotel” in Cape Town; it will be on the website very soon. It‘s so worth doing (9 nights between us and 2 of those nights free!).

Am off on my travels again to “Mud Island” for a sales trip and back in mid July. Wishing you all the best and hopefully see you here soon.